Believe what you may, but it is universally true that the English language, AMERICAN English mind you, is in fact the hardest language you will ever understand. I am not saying it is hard to learn. Any fool can learn English but it takes longer to understand the meaning of certain words and phrases. I have gather materials from previous selections but I will just give you a taste of how English is confusing and hard.
"Can you grab a can of good food for the ewe."
Remember in grammar class where you had to underline the verbs/nouns? Well here's a perfect test.
The verbs: can and grab
The nouns: can, you, food and ewe
Well, wait a minute. Can and can are a verb and a noun?
Can (v): to be able, the ability to, power to, skill to, have the means to
Can (n): a sealed container
Confused yet? It gets better. You and ewe. Okay, this one is easy. You means yourself or any other person (depending on how it is directed). Ewe is a female mature sheep. Same sound yet different spelling.
But how about words that look the same way spelled out yet sound differently. Good and food. Everyone knows what they mean but why should they sound differently? Gooood fooood, or good fud. Why is it good food?
And it gets worse. W-o-r-s-e worse. H-o-r-s-e "herse"?
L-a-u-g-h-t-e-r laughter. D-a-u-g-h-t-e-r "daffter"?
Then of course there is the common "there, their, they're" theory.
There. Where? THERE! Their is possessive and "they're" is they ARE.
The English language is so confusing in its own fundamental way that it is a miracle we pass English courses in school. I found out later in life that I didn't have to draw out the whole of "CANNOT" on reports. I could write the word "can't." I would ask my teacher if I could do it that all the time and she responded, "No, you CAN'T."
Recently, the Oxford English dictionary placed two more words... "WORDS" mind you... into the infinite amount of words already admitted into their collection. The two words were "l-o-l" and "o-m-g." When I saw that on the news I said, "Oh, my god!" and began to laugh out loud. "Lol" and "omg" are not words. They are abbreviations... whoops. Sorry I not using proper writing skills. Allow me to re-phrase. "Lol" and "omg" AIN'T words. They're abbrev!
I'm the one writing this and I'm probably just as confused as you may be. At least the ones who understand the humor of these facts. English is dreadfully confusing on so many different levels I could never possibly fathom. Quick to learn but terribly hard if not impossible to understand, and this was just a few short examples. I hope you enjoyed this and I am hoping to come out with more blogs in the future. Topic suggestions are appreciated and I'll see what I can do with it. Thank you for reading.
